The Lodge at St. Edward

We chose the Lodge because we were looking for a venue that was outside, could accommodate our guests who were mostly coming in from out of town, and had other activities that were available at the hotel (like hiking, bikeriding, etc.). We had our ceremony in the Grotto and our entire reception outside. Lucky for us, the weather was perfect that day. We used the inside ballroom for our Korean ceremony during our cocktail hour. I thought the ballroom was outdated, which is why we chose to have everything outside so that our guests could enjoy the greenery and lovely atmosphere! Our wedding day itself went off without a hitch but there were a few things I thought could be improved. Our experience with the events staff was positive, most of our feedback is surrounding the hotel itself, which unfortunately did tie into our wedding weekend experience. During our tasting, we had told our events manager that we wanted to taste a few of the wines. This was not all the wines but only a few. However, when we told the sommelier, he kept saying he was too busy to do a tasting. This was incredibly disappointing because we are not locals - we were traveling back and forth to Seattle for our wedding planning. It was not until our wedding planner chimed in and explained the situation that he was willing to offer us the tasting of the wines we had chosen. When we arrived for the wedding weekend, the front desk had NO clue we were there for our wedding. While we don't expect a big celebration upon arrival, a little acknowledgment would have been nice vs. the standard check-in process. That said, the events manager had flowers and a nice card waiting for us in our room so that made up for it. One of our biggest priorities was ensuring that our guests were having a positive experience that weekend. Again, our wedding itself was perfect but the events leading and around are why I can't say with 100% confidence that I'd recommend this venue. When we tried to book a block of hotels for our wedding, the only way we could do this was if we pre-paid all the rooms ourselves and then we had to provide an excel sheet of our guests staying at the hotel. As you can imagine, as the bride, this was NOT something I could do. The rate of the hotels were also not cheaper this way. Instead, we found the rooms were cheaper if you booked through their rewards program, Stash. Our guests ended up doing this but then got the TINIEST rooms you can imagine - there was barely any room for their luggage in these rooms and was somewhat embarrassing considering the amount they still paid for the rooms. Our guests also could not order room service (even though the hotel says they have it). The restaurant couldn't accommodate our 10 person party one of the nights. It became very apparent the hotel was incredibly understaffed and couldn't do as they advertised. Advertised and priced like a luxury hotel but the service, food, and rooms were not luxury. I wish I had known all this prior to booking this venue, which is why I am sharing for a future bride. That said, the events staff and our wedding day still was perfect!

We found & booked The Lodge just as it was opening. Our wedding day was wonderful and we are glad to have experienced our reception at The Lodge. The food was fantastic, the location was perfect, and the Remington Ballroom was a great fit for our guests & fall timing. However, there were definitely some hiccups along the way too we wanted to share with other couples considering the venue. About 3 months before the wedding, we started working with The Lodge on things like meal planning, final estimates, etc. The Lodge had gotten some new staff as business grew, and it was apparent there were still a few kinks being worked out across different areas of the business and between the hotel & state park. Some of the issues we encountered were: 1) Finding out less than a month before the wedding our photographer needed a license to take photos in the state park and the state park needing 2 months to process a permit (we asked about photography restrictions when booking and had not been told about this... our experienced photographer said we were the 3rd couple who had issues at this venue with this due to poor communication between The Lodge and state park) 2) Food orders for us to approve that did not match what we had discussed in person & communicated over email (and we were still having to iron this out the week of the wedding) 3) Issues at check-in and check-out due to hotel staff being confused about our hotel reservation and its relationship to the wedding (as the bride & groom) We did have a Day of Coordinator who was fantastic at helping us with many of the issues above, but if we could give our pre-wedding selves advice, it would be to make sure you have a full-service wedding coordinator to work with The Lodge. Not doing so meant that we as a wedding couple had a number of challenges working with the venue, but ultimately our wedding day was a great experience and we plan to visit The Lodge on occasion to reminisce and have a meal.

We hosted our wedding at The Lodge in July 2021 and it truly could not have been more magical. We worked with Carissa on their events team and had our own planner. The food, the drinks, the venue, and the service were truly impeccable. We rented out the Grotto through the state park and had the ceremony there and The Lodge arranged a sprinter van to take my less able bodied parents, as well as the dolled up bridal party, over to the Grotto. It truly couldn’t have been more perfect.